


Of Birthday Candles and Happy Reunions

by vyther15



Series: Birthday Candles AU [1]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: After Avengers Assemble, Birthday, Birthday Party, Could also be steve/tony if you squint really hard, Gen, IDK the timeline really, No beta we die like mne, Not Canon Compliant, Pepper is also mentioned but she also isn't there for unknown reasons, Thor and Loki are mentioned but they aren't really there, but before any movies set after that, i think Tony and Pepper are fighting, the stucky is implied at the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:47:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24119755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vyther15/pseuds/vyther15
Summary: “Steve, go sit at the head of the table. Clint’s gonna bring the cake over to you.” Nat grins as Clint splutters.“That was not the deal, Nat,” he protests. “That was not the deal!”“Get moving, Legolas. We don’t have all day,” Tony calls from next to Steve.Clint carries the cake, if it can still be called that, over to Steve and presents it with a flourish. Steve’s pretty sure it’s more melted wax than--wait a second.“Is that my shield?” Closer inspection proves that to be exactly the case.Nat just laughs. Asshole.(Or, it's Steve's birthday, and the team is going to make it one to remember. Fury helps in that regard.)
Relationships: --if you squint, James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Series: Birthday Candles AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1740373
Comments: 9
Kudos: 23





	Of Birthday Candles and Happy Reunions

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote the first draft of this fic when I was in like 8th grade, and then left it to sit in my wips forever. I found it last month, polished it up, and then forgot about it again. I found it again today, finished polishing it, and decided to post it.
> 
> This takes place in some vague AU where the Winter Soldier is found before the events of Avengers Assemble, but he's obviously been brainwashed, so SHIELD works on un-brainwashing him before they let anyone not working directly on the project know. Steve is not in that project, so he doesn't know. The events of Avengers Assemble happen like in the movie. Coulson dies, and is brought back like in Agents of Shield, but Natasha figures out that he's still alive and makes Fury bring him to Steve's party.
> 
> This is also an AU where Steve's birthday is not actually the Fourth of July. He just said that during a Captain America tour in the forties and hasn't been able to back out of it. However, the Avengers all know his real birthday, hence why they are celebrating it on a day that is not the Fourth of July.
> 
> Also, Pepper isn't there because he and Tony had a minor spat, but then Pepper had a family emergency and now Tony is freaking out because he didn't get to make up with her before she had to go deal with the family emergency. (I have no idea if that tracks with canon Pepper, but I never watched IM1 and only watched part of IM2. I did watch IM3, though.)
> 
> Not beta read: if you see glaring mistakes, let me know respectfully in the comments.

“Steve, what are you doing?” Bucky’s voice filters through Steve’s memories, like it always does when he’s about to do something stupid. Except this time, Bruce echoes his thoughts.

“Steve, what the hell are you doing? Get away from there. Nat isn’t finished!” Bruce pulls Steve back from the door with a grunt of effort. “You can’t go out there yet.”

“Not yet, star spangled banana. Get your ass back in the tower.” Tony leans against the door frame with a glass of wine. Steve’s pretty sure it’s too early for wine. He’s not going to stop Tony from day-drinking wine. Tony almost died a few days ago, and he dropped a nuke into unexplored space via a wormhole that Thor’s brother made. (Thor’s voice saying adopted rings through his head, but Steve shushes it. Adopted or not, they were raised as brothers. They are brothers.)

“No, no, it’s okay. Everything's set up now,” Nat calls. “Now, if Mr. Iron Man could step aside to let the birthday boy through, it would be greatly appreciated.”

“Natasha, what about the last present!” Clint exclaims, standing by the cake.

“Fury’s bringing it. He said he was gonna be late, remember?” Natasha drags Steve towards the card tables with far too much strength than is strictly necessary. It’s not like Steve’s actively trying to run away. “We’re doing cake first.”

And then he finally gets a good look at the cake. “What the fuck, Nat?”

“Oh, no, that was my idea.” Clint smirks from behind the cake. “Natasha just wanted to put the numbers nine and five, to make ninety-five.”

“Cap’ll just have to blow them all out, won’t he?” Tony sloshes his glass a little as he sits down next to Steve. Steve reconsiders letting him drink away his troubles. 

“I’m all for that idea, but we better sing first.” Bruce grins, sitting down.

“Bruce,” Steve whispers. “Why didn’t you put a stop to that?”

Bruce shrugs, grinning. “I wasn’t going against the deadliest assassin duo in the world over some candles.”

“Steve, go sit at the head of the table. Clint’s gonna bring the cake over to you.” Nat grins as Clint splutters.

“That was not the deal, Nat,” he protests. “That was not the deal!”

“Get moving, Legolas. We don’t have all day,” Tony calls from next to Steve. He wonders where Pepper is. Steve has the feeling Tony would be a lot less drunk if Pepper were here. Steve does not ask where Pepper is. He does not want to deal with the potential fallout of that question.

Clint carries the cake, if it can still be called that, over to Steve and presents it with a flourish. Steve’s pretty sure it’s more melted wax than--wait a second.

“Is that my shield?” Closer inspection proves that to be exactly the case.

Nat just laughs. Asshole.

“Blow out the candles, Cap,” Tony says. He sets down his drink. “I wanna see if you can get them all in one big huff.”

“Betcha you can’t,” Clint says, and Steve decides he will, just to spite him.

“What do I get if I do?” he says, more for the sake of it than actually expecting a response, because before Clint can say anything, he’s sucking in air to blow out ninety-odd candles.

He does get them all in one go; take that, Clint.

The cake is totally ruined. Steve isn’t surprised. Clint, apparently, is.

“What did you expect, dumbass,” Nat says fondly as a sleek black car pulls up. “Lucky us, I called ahead to Fury. If he doesn’t have a new cake, he’s going to go back and get another one.”

Fury does have another cake. That fact is overshadowed by Agent Phil Coulson stepping out of the sleek black car after Fury. Everyone but Natasha and Bruce lose their shit.

Natasha's reason for staying calm is obvious: she already knew, which, knowing Natasha, is not surprising. Bruce's reasons are a little harder to discern, because Steve doubts he already knew. Steve thinks that’s because Bruce can’t afford to lose his shit, but he digresses.

But then Coulson's dramatic return is overshadowed by one James Buchanan Barnes stepping out of the sleek black car.

At first Steve isn’t fully positive that it’s him: his hair is past his chin, he has a metal arm, and he’s as muscled as Steve himself. Also, he died over seventy years ago.

But then he says, “hey, punk,” sounding so tired, and so exactly like Bucky that Steve completely forgets all sense of decorum he might have ever had and bodily slams into Bucky, wrapping his arms around him in the tightest hug he’s ever given anyone in his life.

“Steve, man, you gotta let him breathe,” Tony says. Natasha has taken his glass of wine, Steve realizes when he pulls away from Bucky.

Bucky refuses to let go of Steve’s hand.

Steve doesn’t want to make him.

So he doesn't.

**Author's Note:**

> So, Steve's inner monologues are probably slightly ooc, but I don't really care. Also, he does curse. And seeing that this is before AoU, there was no point in the "Language" joke, which was disappointing. I almost put it in just for the hell of it, but the characters would not have this inside joke yet, so I didn't.
> 
> I personally think that this fic is not platonic with Steve/Bucky, but it can be read platonically if you really want, and if you squint really hard, it could be Steve/Tony, which I don't ship, but you can if you want.
> 
> I might eventually come back to this AU and write more. If I do, it will be explicitly Steve/Bucky, and will feature Tony & Pepper making up, Steve, Bucky, and Nat befriending Sam, Wanda and Pietro being found, un-whitewashed, and Pietro not dying, and also Thor and Loki making up before Dark World can happen.
> 
> Let me know what you thought in the comments.


End file.
